Richard Hugo was inspired by America, particularly small town America. His book The Triggering Town, a landmark of poetic theory, talked about how one should begin with description and let that trigger the imagination, so that the poem is able to move off of the triggering subject and move onto something else. The things which best triggered Hugo were towns -- especially those which were struggling, stuck in a post-industrial mire. He is best known for poems like "Degrees of Gray in Phillipsburg" and "The Lady In Kicking Horse Reservoir."
Hugo's poems are filled with haunting, dark imagery. "Living Alone" is a poem in that streak. It begins auspicious enough, with the speaker explaining his weird but intriguing life in the woods where he fraternizes with deer. Later he reveals that his cabin was the site of a murder, particularly that of the woman. The speaker suddenly becomes defensive and territorial, leaving the reader shaken, and their thoughts hanging as to whether the speaker is a murderer or just a madman.
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